Combined Efforts
by FlyingBoppers
Summary: Max is fed up with not doing anything, so the Flock splits up into pairs to find mutants like them, but nobody foresees drama of humans involved. New faces will help them get through the hardest thing they've faced... separation.
1. Off we go

**A.N. Hi! I say hi because I resolved to stop saying Hey hey hey at the begining of chapters. This is my new story, which you might already know about**

**Nudge: Cause her contest was for it. So we now have 4 new mutants, a human and an OC from her because no one gave her a small human. **

**Me: At the end I'm mentioning the names of the authors who got their people in here. **

**Nudge: You're still mean, cruel, heartless, and should burn in Tarturus**

**Me: Nudge, just because Mrs. Gillette likes everyone and picks on you so much doesn't mean I have to burn in some other hell.**

**Nudge: It does too! **

"We haven't done anything!" Maximum Ride exclaimed. Her frustration boiled over and fizzed, drowning her second in command. "We need to do something to help the world!"

"What do you plan on doing?" Fang answered smoothly.

"I don't know!" Max yelled. "The last thing we've done was escape a stupid Floridian facility! Where my clone attacked me 2 years ago! After that, we've done nothing but hide!"

"Why don't we ask the kids," Fang suggested in a tone that was much to calm for Max.

"Fine," She huffed. Then was reminded. The kids. They were still in the cave, sleeping at this tense hour.

Max sighed and the two 16 year olds spread their wings, hers like an eagle's and his like the most pitch black, and flew into the large cave. Inside, a few blankets and backpacks were scattered on the cave floor, among the 4 figures sleeping in the dark night.

This cave in the middle of the Grand Canyon made an amazing hiding spot. Enough of one that the others slept as soundly as possible.

Iggy was laying spread eagle on his stomach on top of his personal blue blanket, one that his parents gave him in Virginia. Gasman was snoring loudly on his side. Nudge and Angel shared a large thin cotton purple blanket, curled up on their sides, Total resting between them.

Max and Fang sat by the mouth of the cave and took watch silently until sunup.

Sunup was a noisy time for all living creatures.

"We could tell people about starving kids and poverty! Or experiments, but would that be bad to tell people about us, or would that be okay, cause then they could bust other people or animals out of the School, or we could! We could totally go bust kids out of Schools, Fang was looking them up on his laptop earlier, sorry Fang I read over your shoulder, but I hacked in for you. So we could just save kids!" Nudge finished. For 13, she wasn't very mature.

"I like Nudge's idea." Angel, now 8, supplied. "Can't we save other kids that live like we did?"

"How many Schools are across the country?" Iggy asked incredulously.

"Probably a lot." Max said hesitantly.

"There's one somewhere in Montana, one in California that we never wish to visit, and others in top secret locations." Fang said as shortly as possible.

"That's just peachy." Iggy said, sarcasm dripping off his words.

"I like the idea." Max said strongly. "We need to start with our own kind." She cleared her throat, thinking of her plan from there. "But we need to split up."

"Why?" Gasman asked. Angel looked sad, Nudge like she was about to erupt with word spew, Iggy looked confused.

"We need one group to Montana, one group towards Illinois, one group towards the Carolinas. The group in Illinois and North and South Carolina, just in those general areas, looking for Schools. We'll meet here again in about 3 weeks, maybe sooner. If you're not back by then, we start looking for you. We might go to the one in California someday as well." Max said bravely. But in Max's head she was nervous about the effect on the Flock this would have, and wondering how she knew the layout of the country. It must've been the formal schooling.

The Flock thought for a minute. They were confused, sad, and almost mad at first. After a minute they realized her idea could be one of the best for finding Schools.

Angel's eyes unfocused as she scanned her 'moms' mind. Max was thinking of the groups they'd split into, trying to think one 16 year old for each group, stronger with weaker, all that. Though Angel slightly disapproved of the teams, she was confident they might work. So she scooped up her little black dog and walked over to hold Iggy's hand.

"Angel," Max said accusingly. "Did you read my mind?" The 8 year old only giggled. Max sighed and went on. "Alright, Angel, pack for you, Iggy, and Total. Fang, you're taking Gazzy out to Illinois, Angel already knows she and Iggy are heading farther east. Nudge and I are going to Montana." There was a little bit of unintelligible mumbling as they started to gather up their stuff.

"So, if we find people and save them, can we bring them back here?" Gasman asked, trying to grasp the concept.

"I guess." Max answered, unsure. Then the process of packing began.

Nudge was talking to herself as she twirled around the cave, picking up the purple blanket and looking over to Angel. Angel smiled, indicating Nudge could keep it for the 3 weeks. Angel still smiled as she packed up Celeste and a bit of the food from the cave, and brought out a small square of a pink fuzz pillow from farther back in the cave to put in her pack.

Max looked sternly at Angel, not liking that her little girl had secrets. Max's backpack already held her white blanket, and a small amount of food and water. She had nothing else.

Fang and Gazzy packed quickly, as neither had anything other than backpacks and food, aside from Fang's permanent attachment, his laptop.

Iggy felt around the floor, not finding anything else that was his. There was nothing there, he was done.

It was all usual packing procedure.

After they finished, it was checked again. Everything was in order. But this meant they had to leave sooner, which none of them were prepared for.

Nudge and Angel almost cried, but they'd been raised otherwise. Iggy and Gasman looked sad, but almost as impassive as Fang. As for Max, she just smiled sadly before taking off into the sunrise, Nudge on her heels. Fang nudged Gasman then took off. Iggy felt his hand being pulled forward, and he went with the motion. Angel was his guide, and Total as well.

They were all guides for each other. But now their guides were leaving. The Flock was, no matter how temporarily, spilt up.

**SO, I updated this, improved it, fixed it up. **

**Flying out.**

**P.S. The author names are- FeliciaCaden, cutieepiee-x, raven at midnight, and Beth. THeir names will be mentioned when their characters appear. **


	2. Ethan and Isabelle and Cadisha

**No, I will not start this with Hey Hey Hey. I refuse.**

**Nudge: Why? That was kinda cool, it was like a pattern, and I saw you start to type it and then backspace it. You shouldn't have, even though it's kinda funny when you yell at yourself, and people call **_**me**_** crazy.**

**Me: Nudge, somehow you are more insane then my friends, even Roger (who actually wants to be called that in real life, but her real name will not be displayed), and that takes talent. **

**Nudge: You're mean. Roger's weirder than I am! And, oh, what should I call all your friends! *Me and Nudge have a whispered conversation* And Willow, and LeShawna, but not weirder than Courtney or Grace, cause their so NORMAL.**

**Me: We're getting off topic. This is a Bookaholic71's contest PULL, and here you go.**

Max POV

Nudge was getting annoying. We had to fly 887.3 miles to get to Montana according to the internet. We'd been out for 2 days, stopping only for food, the long rests we need, and once at a library for their internet access. Also according to the internet, it should take 1.58 hours to get there.

On a freaking plane! And a plane travels at 570 miles an hour. We travel at 50 miles an hour. Nudge looked up a bunch of math stuff that said if we fly 5 hours a day (which we do) in one day we'll go 250 miles. This math is boring; let me cut to the chase. It takes 4 days each way!

Enough of stupid boring math. Back to Nudge being annoying. Through 10 hours of flight so far, and like 40 eating and sleeping, she'd only shut up for about an hour! The chick even talks in her sleep.

I sound really mean, but it's the truth. More truth was I was in the middle of Provo Utah in some forest place cuddled up to a piece of white fleece and a stuffed cardinal and it was comforting really. It's almost like watching the whole Flock, except I can't hear Iggy mumbling about girls and bacon, or Total scampering around the cave because he's an insomniac.

The tree we were in was large. The branches were thick and held us easily. Nudge was folded in half, her head at weird angle. I listened into her mumblings, something I didn't usually do.

"Angel, who's that? No Angel, you shouldn't tell Max. She wouldn't like to know you had another stuffie." Nudge mumbled. Her dreams were very random. Also Nudge called stuffed animals stuffies, which was cute, but she was 13.

I just rolled my eyes and continued to watch the black night.

2 days later

We were above Montana, scanning the land below. We'd been doing this for ½ hour now. Nudge had stopped talking finally, hopefully realizing the depth of the situation.

Then we saw it. A big white building with a razor wire electric fence surrounding it, a large field with more razor wire with deadly winged Erasers, and a large parking lot full of fancy cars. The Montana School.

"It looks so scary." Nudge said unusually brief.

"Yeah." I breathed. So many memories came back of snapping Eraser jaws, just waiting to get a piece of misbehaving bird kid. I remembered getting out of the School, the first feeling of freedom. We were going to give that to someone.

"Let's dive down."

"Don't we have a plan?" Nudge shrieked.

"Yes." I said, my teeth gritted. "We go in, find someone to bust out, and get our butts out of there." I didn't have a plan. We were 'winging' it.

I swooped into a dive and Nudge followed.

"Ok, I have an actual plan." I turned to Nudge. "We go in through a window that leads into a room with cages; I'll find an experiment that is healthy enough. You see what people I take out and grab their files, remember how when we were there our papers were in front of us? Those papers." I said, as she nodded.

We dodged the fencing and starting looking into windows. I saw some pretty twisted things. Some defenseless infants with horrible deformities on hospital tables being operated on, baby erasers shredding a small child. It was horrible.

"This is horrible." Nudge whispered. "I think I see the window." She pointed to a small square window that showed a rectangular room lined with cages. We turned towards it, our wings angled just right. Nudge got to the window first and removed it carefully. To my surprise, no alarms went off. I saw an Eraser start around the corner and pushed Nudge in, following her immediately.

The room we were in didn't have very many people in it. There were only 5 occupied kennels. The first 2 were so small and sick I wanted to cry. But after them, the others seemed fine, except for their DNA mix.

One was a girl was maybe Gasman's age with tanned skin and amazing green eyes. Her dark hair was dirty and tangled. I saw bright red, blue, and green wings on her back, and small black scales around her eyes. She looked up at me pleadingly and I unlocked her cage. Nudge grabbed the files and the girl stepped out and started to open her mouth but I stopped her with my finger.

As we started to lead the girl out, 2 more people caught my eye. A boy and a girl, each about my age. Both were watching me intently. All I saw was that they could think, they could move, and they knew how. I bolted over to the boys cage and while I was prying off the lock, I got a better look at him.

He had shaggy black hair; so long it almost hid his very distinctive blue eyes. He was lean and muscled, large wings coming out of his back that I couldn't see clearly. When the lock came off and the door swung open, he didn't move, just watched as Nudge removed his papers.

Nudge scampered to the girl still in the cage. She fumbled with the lock until it was ripped off. For whatever insane reason, alarms started clanging at this. Red lights flashed. I grabbed her files and we ran for the window.

I boosted up Nudge, then the younger girl. The older two, the boy and girl we almost didn't save, ran up then. I boosted the girl out, but the boy climbed up himself. I quickly climbed the wall after them and took off.

Nudge was carrying the smaller girl, the one with scales around her eyes. But the others were flying strong, the girl had dainty white wings, long almost white hair, porcelain skin and deep green eyes. The boy had…bat wings.

Bat wings. That was new.

I heard snarling behind us. Without turning, I knew Erasers were on the ground. When I did turn, we were only about 50 feet up, and sure enough, evil wolf-men surrounded the window we'd taken off by.

Then they pulled out the guns. I mean real, actual, firing _guns_. A few bullets whizzed by my hair. I looked back to Nudge and the 3 we rescued. The girls looked frightened, the boy angry.

An Eraser with wings started flying up, unarmed. He was looking anxiously at the littler girl. I started towards him, hand raised in fists, until I heard the little girl yell.

"Trek! Don't hurt him, person, he's just coming with me. He likes me." She said sweetly.

"Cadisha, who are these people?" Trek said. Cadisha shrugged. Nudge looked offended.

More shots fired from below. The bat boy pushed the bird girl out of the way of a bullet. She smiled gratefully at him. I dodged a few of my own.

That was when the devastating shot was fired. It was like the world slowed down as the small black pellet zoomed too fast towards the girl in Nudge's arms. I was too far to push her out of the way, and so were the others. But Trek had other ideas. He threw himself in front of the little capsule. I didn't want to see it, but my eyes wouldn't look away. He stayed in the air as what started out as a speck turned into a blossoming of blood. His hands clutched at his ribcage. The blood covered his white shirt, staining his meaty hands.

Cadisha screamed. She wriggled in Nudge's grasp. Trek's wings stopped flapping and he fell down into the mob. If it was possible for Cadisha to scream louder, she did.

"We have to move!" I shouted. It was true. Nudge turned against the struggling girl in her arms and sped off. The other kids followed her. I started after them. Erasers shouted, Cadisha screamed, and I couldn't help but feel terrible.

Later that day

"So what do our files say, exactly?" Ethan asked stubbornly. He'd been asking that for a while now.

""Calm down, Ethan." Isabelle said soothingly. I should probably explain.

Isabelle and Ethan were the boy and girl from the School, they'd grown up together. I had been reading through Ethan's files, Nudge was going through Isabelle's.

"I'll read it directly." I said irritably. "Experiment number B21, answers to Ethan. Birth date-March 25, 1994. 2% vampire bat 98% human. Age 16. Special abilities include great power of flight and echolocation. Handicap: Near-sighted. Incisor teeth pointed slightly. Injured 2 scientists in all during testings. Injured 47 Erasers in all during testing and through cage bars. Daily testing-` hour in wind tunnel. Other testing as needed. Diet- 1 medium rare hamburger and ½ cup of water a day. History-DNA inserted before birth. Parents though him dead. 1 older sister, unknown. Introduced to Experiment ASP16 at age 8. Expiration date-February 14 2015."

The words were oddly simple. Ethan's jaw tightened. "That's it?" He said sharply.

"No, there's more over here in my invisible tree drawer." I said sarcastically, gesturing to a random tree branch. He scowled.

"Isabelle, you wanna hear yours? Cause I want to red it, even if it's not the nicest thing in the world." Nudge asked bouncily.

"I already know where I came from." Isabelle said sadly. I was confused.

"What do you mean? Whitecoats don't tell you where you're from." I said skeptically. Isabelle looked sadder.

"Belle, you don't have to tell them." Ethan said cautiously.

"I should though." She said sweetly. Isabelle took a deep breath. "When I was born, I was normal. I was normal up until I was 9. Up until then, it was just me, my mom, and my dad. We didn't have a lot of money, but I loved them. Then one night these wolf men came and took me away. My parents didn't even wake up. When I came here they put me in a cage surrounded by scientists. I was terrified. But then they put me next to Ethan, and I learned what they did here. Soon they brought me into surgery, and I came back like this." She stretched her angelic wings. "I'm really valuable."

I couldn't say anything to that. Instead, I saw Ethan's death glare at me. He looked like he was ready to kill me.

"Cadisha, are you okay?" I heard Nudge ask. I looked away from Ethan's glare and to the 10 year old. Earlier we'd glanced at her files and she snatched them and took them to a different branch to read, as though she was embarrassed. She must've found something. Because crying doesn't usually mean okay.

**There it t'was.**

**Nudge: T'was is a funny word. But your chapter wasn't funny! Why can't you write happy stuff?**

**Me: I might actually write a happy oneshot soon.**

**Nudge: But it'll end with someone dying as usual, because when you're away from Willow, Roger, Grace, Courtney, and LeShawna you're pretty much doom and gloom, unless you like me that day, which most days you don't, but when you do we get candy!**

**Me: Nudge, shut up. Anyway. Ethan and Isabelle are property of raven in midnight, and Cadisha is property of my beta, who changed her screen name to something long and hard to say, let me look it up quick. Cadisha Rhaksha Ora Caden. There you go.**

**Flying out.**

**P.S. I don't own Maximum Ride.**


	3. Cailyn

**_A.N: _Hey guys! I'm back! For PULL! I would've updated sooner but the DocX thing is being stupid. **

**Nudge: But It wasn't Cadisha Ora Rhaska Caden's fault, so it's okay, because now you can't yell at her, so it works. Right?**

**Me: Yeah, sure Nudge. Let's just start the chapter. **

_Angel POV_

Flying is a beautiful thing. I was only 8 years old, but I could still appreciate it.

My blond hair whipped around me, Iggy was right next to me, Total was in make-shift backpack talking to me; it was an immortal world of me. With sounds really conceited.

"Angel, how close are we?" Iggy asked. I'd been scanning the landscape, watching the constant movement of the world. I'm poetic like that.

"We're about there, I think." We'd been flying for a few days at least. And there weren't big thick state lines like there is on maps; those would've been helpful. "Anyway, Max just said general area. I think we should start really looking."

"Or,_you_should get to looking," Iggy said irritably. He'd been really touchy about that. I decided to leave it alone.

"Yeah, okay," I answered.

"Hey, I exist too!" Total complained. Iggy smiled and we kept going.

We flew for another hour or so before my stomach rumbled. Iggy heard it and laughed. "Let's find somewhere to camp, sport," Sport. I don't know why he called me that, but I liked it.

Scanning the land, I found a forest. Guiding Iggy with my wing, we went down. At the very edge, there was a sign. 'Manchester State Forest'. That was convenient. Total hopped out of my grasp and went in.

"We're at a state forest." I told Iggy quickly. We grabbed hands and walked into the dark edges of the trees following my dog.

Wandering isn't always very fun. I saw birds and squirrels, the occasional wolf or bear. It wasn't anything unusual. The sun was setting and the trees and everything looked blacker and blacker.

"We might be able to stop here," I said after we'd been walking for a while. We couldn't really keep track of time.

"Cool. Open up your pack, maybe we can set up a fire with my lighter, as long as we're not too closely surrounded by trees." Iggy responded. Glancing around, I saw the nearest tree was maybe a foot and a half away, but if we put a small fire in the right spot…

"So, where can we set one up?" Iggy asked casually. I led him over to a point where the closest tree was still only 2 feet away; telling him it had to be small. He gathered some dead branches around himself and put them in a pile. I rummaged through his backpack, which was running low on the barely-any-to-start-with canned food, and pulled out his red lighter. Long story short, we found a lighter and let Iggy keep it. Which probably wasn't the best idea.

A small fire was started. Why would we need one, you ask? To keep away wolves, and to cook our stolen eggs. Don't judge. Iggy had a small frying pan in his backpack that he took out, cracked eggs into, and started stirring. Scrambled eggs when you're hungry. Nothing in the world is better.

A small rustle of trees made us perk up, but not in a happy way, in an alert way. Like, I don't even know.

"Uh, what was that?" Total said cautiously.

"Maybe just a bear," I said worriedly.

"_Just_a bear," Iggy said sarcastically. "We're_just_going to die, nothing wrong with that."

Just then a surrounding tree started bending over Iggy. Its canopy was curling downwards, almost touching his head after a few seconds. Then it bent lower still, and the leaves shifted out so they surrounded Iggy's shape perfectly. Then he was picked up by a tree. That all happened in about 30 unexpected seconds.

"Iggy!" I yelled desperately. He was shouting unintelligible things that I'm pretty sure were swear words. Even though the tree was just standing there now, I did not appreciate it picking up my friend I was supposed to protect.

"I smell someone." Total whimpered pathetically.

I whipped my head around until I heard someone laughing. "Hahaha! Hysterical! Hahaha!" The laughing went on until a figure emerged from the trees. She had long wavy red hair, laughing green eyes, and a daisy tucked in her hair. She looked maybe 11 or 12. Her clothes were a size too big for her, a green T-shirt, jeans, and converse.

"What are you lookin' at?" She asked me suddenly. She had a slight English accent. My eyes had swept to the edge of her T-shirt sleeve, where I could see a patch of green, and a small bit of pink.

"Nothing." I said quickly. She looked at me skeptically. Iggy walked into our very small clearing from behind the tree, careful to not let this girl see his wings.

"Well_that_was fun." He muttered sarcastically. Total rolled his eyes.

It had gotten almost dark out, the sun was in mid-set. The girl looked at the sun for a moment, then she turned back to me.

"So who are you?" She asked me casually.

"Angel." I told her sweetly, letting her think I was all innocence. "And this is my dog Total and my brother Iggy." Iggy looked surprised I'd use our real names, but I hadn't thought of fake ones beforehand.

"Huh." The girl said thoughtfully. "Those names sound familiar." Okay, I most definitely should have thought of fake names on the spot.

"That's weird," Iggy said thoughtfully, totally playing his role. "I didn't think those were common names."

"Neither is wearing a sweatshirt when it's really warm outside, or camping in a forest," The girl said, pointing to our fire and lumpy sweatshirts. She paused, looking at us carefully. "You guys seem really familiar."

"No we don't." I said without thinking. But that and my little dog had to ruin it.

"Why would we be any different?" Total asked casually. The girls eyes widened in recognition and shock.

"So where are the other 4?" She asked anxiously. How did she know? She looked at me differently, like she finally got it. "You guys were the escapees. The Maximum Ride gang. You guys inspired me to escape when I was 10. Those key holders were so mean. They just got under my skin, and UUHHHHH!" She ended flopping herself into a seated position. "Sorry, I go to some topic that almost sets off my temper. It's just a perk of being me." She grinned evilly.

Total realized his mistake. He jumped into my backpack to hide himself from the shame. I patted his head absent-mindedly. _Mind! _I didn't bother to check this girls head; I'd been so out of it. Wow. I started looking.

I drew back. In her silence, this girl was thinking of how she'd gotten here and what she's done. Snuck on plane to get away from what she called key holders, it was easy. Landing over in North Carolina, and walking. So much walking, and slowly bending, growing, or shrinking plants. Able to control trees the best. She'd stolen clothing from clotheslines; which weren't always exactly her size. For 3 years she'd been on her own, and I was suddenly sucked up into her life, into her mind.

"You're partmalus domestica, or apple tree as you later found out. It's spring, so the bits of you that are leafy have flowers. Those key holders are what we call white coats. You're not alone anymore. Would you like to come with us?" I asked. My mouth was just spilling things straight from my thoughts without them being judged for rationality.

"Where?" She asked quietly.

"Will you tell us your_name_first?" Total asked irritated from my backpack. The girl looked skeptical.

"I've been calling myself Cailyn, or Cali, I guess. The key holders called me MD4520. I think I'm 13, but I'm not sure. Now where?" Cailyn finished and smiled.

"The Grand Canyon, of course." Iggy announced like he were a ring master. "After we get some food and sleep though."

Cailyn laughed. "You know what, I think I'm in."

And that moment, I felt the best thing soar through Cali's head. For the first time ever, she had a family.

**I feel like a horrible person because I don't remember who submited Cailyn...yeah I got nothing. If it was you, please review and say so, and tell me if I got her right.**

**Nudge: Flying, the bus comes in 10 minutes. SO we should probably get going or we're gonna be late for school, and since we're the only ones in the house right now no one could drive us there, then we'd be late, and Mrs. Feinstein would be mad, and maybe Mrs. List, and it's the last day of the 1st quarter so I really wanna get there on time, so please?**

**Me: Nudge, you just wasted 2 minutes. Let's go.**

**Nudge: Yay.**

**Flying out.**


	4. Neko and Hilary

**Me: Here we go, a PULL update. **

**Nudge: Why isn't the other girl in this chapter! What's wrong with you! I _liked_ the other girl!**

**Me: Nudge! I already told you.**

**Nudge: No you didn't.**

**Me: Yes-**

**Nudge: No. You did not.**

**Me: *sigh* I'll just tell them at the end.**

* * *

I was stuck. With a 10 year old. And his sense of humor. Fan-flipping-tastic. After all, what other age group constantly makes fun of you and then mixes in a blond joke. No other.

"Hey Fang," Gasman started.

"We'll land soon, Gaz." I stated shortly.

"No," He said pointing. "How could you not see that?"

I used my eyes to follow where he was pointing. Suddenly what I'd seen as trees, morphed. Instead, there was a great white building with razor wire and despicable wolf-men around it.

"Okay, we are camping somewhere else." I said, and swerved off.

We were just outside of Illinois. Plans to go to the School the next morning were made.

Gasman had his 'blanket', and I had mine. I saw his little stuffed Mario Bomb-omb, even though he tried to hide it from me.

Yet the thought of someone in that School pulled at me. Someone was in there, well enough to get out. I just knew it.

Gasman was asleep. I reached over and shoved his shoulder.

"Stay awake while I'm gone. If I don't come back, come find me."

"What?" He scream-whispered. "You're going to the School? I'm coming with."

"Too dangerous," I said, shaking my head and lifting off.

In all honesty, I was scared and he was my back-up plan. But if I let him know that, I wouldn't be Fang.

* * *

15 minutes later, I saw nothing but trees. But as soon as I looked for signs of morphing, and there they were. The dreadful building of nightmares. And stuff so much worse than your nightmares.

The windows were barred, but maybe I could slip through. I waited for the Erasers to move. Then I swooped in and very delicately smashed the glass with my fist. The bars were far enough apart that I could barely get through.

The window led to an operating room. Inside, there was a little girl attached to a table and 6 whitecoats surrounding her. Antiseptic smells and getting blood drawn everyday was nothing compared to the looks on the sadistic faces of whitecoats; I would know. The sight of her limp body and their scalpels at the ready made me sick. So sick I pounced.

I went full-out force on a few weak humans. Yeah.

The little girl was slung over my shoulder before I even looked hard at her. The door was glass, and the slivers of the sharp material just cut me up more.

But I didn't care. I was running, and running fast. I didn't really know where I was, but I knew I was moving towards a large window, and that's all that mattered to me.

A heard a small groan. The girl across my shoulder was waking up. I ran faster until I felt glass shards penetrating my skin.

That was officially the wrong window to pick. Alarms were blaring inside, so I would not go back in, but this choice sucked.

I was in a razor wire enclosure, with no grass, just dirt. And of course the multiple Erasers. But something in the Erasers eyes showed…fear. My eyes followed theirs to what they were afraid of.

An Asian girl, maybe 14, stood in the dirt clearing. She had long black hair and slanted green eyes. But the weirdest part would be…the fact she had bat wings, black cat ears perched on her head and a tail.

She didn't look like she was enjoying this, but she ran and beat up Erasers anyway. But as soon as her eyes met mine, they widened.

The last Eraser was out cold, and she ran up to me.

"Isn't that the human girl they keep here?" She asked almost sarcastic, but also worried.

Human?

"Aren't you here to bust people out? Cause I've left this place once, I could do it again."

"That would be good." I answered hesitantly.

She ran and jumped into the broken window, neatly, so she didn't cut herself. Sadly, I had to pass the girl to her, then clumsily jump in and cut my hand more.

The girl started running down a maze of hallways, with her eyes closed. Literally, her eyes were shut tight as she maneuvered through the loud hallways.

Lights flashed, alarms were still going strong.

She stopped at a door marked 'Neko'

Her eyes opened and she pushed the door open wide. Inside was a cot with a blanket on top, and that was it.

"My room." She said unhappily. "But they gave me a view."

A window was there all right, but it looked like more bars had been recently added to make them closer together, as half of them were a slightly different color.

She reached under the cot and pulled a few objects out from under it. Pulling on a hooded sweatshirt, she shoved things in the big pocket at the same time.

"I'll get out this way, as for you…" She opened the door and karate kicked a whitecoat, knocking him out. "Take his lab coat and take the girl to the front room, you'll find you're way. Bust out through the big window. While you're walking, keep your head low."

She dashed back into her room, leaving me with the girl and an unconscious whitecoat.

Setting the little blond girl on the floor gently; I moved hesitantly toward the whitecoat. Working with limp bodies is no fun, but I managed to slip on the white lab coat he was wearing previously.

I picked up the girl again, and looked down. I barely knew where I was going. Instinct wins in those cases.

I entered a big lobby area thing. The room was full of milling white-coats.

"What are you doing with Hilary?" A whitecoat asked me. Needless to say, I didn't respond.

Instead, I started running. I ran straight through the large window, something I seem to keep doing.

* * *

Once outside, the coat came off and my wings stretched out. The darkness made me invisible, but it did the same for the girl with cat features. I swooped around the building quickly, scanning the blackness.

"What are you looking for?" A voice said behind me. I jumped in the air and saw the outline of the girl.

"You." I answered. Then I realized I hadn't told her my name. "I'm Fang."

"Neko." She answered.

Neko looked at me with what I'm pretty sure was an expectant look, but it was pitch black outside.

All I did was let a ghost of a smile across my face, and start heading back to the meeting point with Gasman.

**All right, so that's part one of the Fang/Gasman chapter. Part 2 will be up who-knows when. Neko is property of i heart manga 89, and Hilary is mine. SO there!**

**Nudge: I don't remember you saying those things. And I remember a lot, so**

**Me: No you don't Nudge.**


	5. Emmi

**SO this is chapter 5! I'm a horrible person. I missed last week and I forgot repeatedly that Beth made Cailyn, so I suck for that.**

**Nudge: Yes you do, and you suck for a lot of others things too.**

**Me: Yep, Nudge decided she hates me.**

**Nudge: You quit chorus! SO now we have a period where we're not together!**

**Me: Yeah, just read the chapter.**

I was _extremely_ ticked off. Fang decided I couldn't fend for myself, and he ran off. Well I could run too. So I did.

Well, not running. Flying high above the streets of Illinois.

I'd changed in 2 years, developing a power that made no sense for me to have. I could sense emotion pouring out of people. When they were having strong feeling, I felt tugs in my intestines, and it _hurt_.

I'd been flying for maybe 10 minutes when my insides were being pulled away from me towards the ground. That was fun.

That's the most painful things you could ever feel. After all, I was being pulled to the ground by pure sadness and bad memories. Pure pain.

I did an ungraceful face-plant into the sidewalk. My face got pretty scraped up, causing it to bleed. And it _hurt_.

Yet my legs decided it was time to see who had so much pain pouring out of their skin.

There was a pool of emotion emanating from a 15 year old girl with a notepad and pen sitting on the sidewalk, doodling. She had some shade of darkish hair (it was dark out!), and green eyes, I think.

But once again, my legs made their own decisions. I walked closer to the girl. Her picture was really messed up.

It was her, with large dark wings. Which is normal enough. But there were explosion in the background, and she was all ripped up and bloodied. She was the only person in the picture, and surrounded by havoc.

That was just creepy.

She stopped in her drawing. Slowly she turned around, a confused look on her face. I stood there, a pained look on my face.

"Who are you?" She asked incredulously.

"How can you _do_ that?" I gasped out. The pain was disappearing; but this girl obviously had something going on here.

"Um…who are you?" She asked again. I could finally speak normally to respond.

"Someone. Now how can you do that? Make so much emotion pour out of a pen?" I asked, my voice wound up tightly.

"I don't know how…but I can. Ever since I can remember. What do you want?" She was cautious.

"Um, are you afraid of heights?" I asked. What? She was special right? She didn't look like she had a place to go home to either.

"Only if it's over large bodies of water." She answered carefully.

"It won't be." I grinned. In one motion, I ran picked the girl up, opened my wings and flew off.

"What the-!" She screeched.

"The story comes later! I'm Gazzy, and you are?" I'm a horrible person for laughing at her pain, I know.

"Emerald Lavienne!" She yelled. "Or Emmi!"

"Well Emmi, you're mind has been officially blown."

Emmi smiled and brought out her pen and notepad, scribbling a picture of me holding her, my wings wide. Her happiness and wonder surged through me stronger than any emotion before. And I liked it.

"I got back and you were gone! Do you know how worried I was?" Fang was ranting. I really wouldn't care, except hate hurts.

Over to my left, Emmi was getting to know Neko, a cat/bat/human hybrid. A little girl lay at their feet, deep in sleep.

I was tired myself. Fang was; I could tell. But Fang was lecturing me. Woo hoo.

Suddenly his voice softened. "But Gasman, there is something you should know."

I raised my eyebrows. "What?"

"Angel isn't your only sister." He gestured to the girl asleep on the ground.

My sister? That little blond haired, maybe 5 year old girl was my sister? And she was human?

My mind felt like silly putty as the sun began to rise.

"Aidan?" The little girl asked shakily. "Aidan?" I got a look at her face. It was Angel's face, plain and simple. But her hair was downy and fluffy, not curly.

"Who's Aidan?" Emmi asked gently.

"My brother! Where's Aidan!" She asked, desperate now.

"You had a brother?" Neko asked, shocked.

"Yeah! His name was Aidan and he was 2." She said, holding up 2 fingers. "And he had wings, but he couldn't fly. His wings were pretty and white…where's Aidan?" She asked again.

"He's still at that place." Neko growled. Emmi looked confused.

"Why? I'm not at that place anymore." She said confused.

"Yeah, but you're brother is still there." Neko said with great annoyance.

The girl started sobbing.

"It's okay Hilary." Fang said stiffly. Hilary. My baby sister's name was Hilary, and my baby brother's name was Aidan.

It could be that through the pain tearing my insides out, today was the best day ever. Even though we'd have to carry Hilary and Emmi across the country.

**Sucky ending, sucky chapter. Like something, like something else. Yeah, I don't know. **

**Nudge: *ignoring flying***

**Me: I might want a new character, any ideas?**

**Flying out.**


	6. Returning 'home'

**I almost cried during part of this. See if you can guess witch section, it's easy.**

**Angel: I'm not in this one very much.**

**Me: YOU'll be in the next one more. Now onto the story!**

I was returning. Nudge had shut up, and the other 3 mutants were flying along.

Isabelle flew gracefully, her white wings helping her loop-de-loop and twirl, creating her own little air show in mid-flight.

Ethan flew powerfully below us. His odd, bony bat wings moved him quickly, though he held back enough to stay with us. I could still tell he didn't like being in a pack.

Cadisha flew reluctantly. The bright colors on her wings were migraine-inducing, and I tried not to look at them. Her eyes held grief and other jumbled emotions I didn't want to unscramble at the moment.

After the first day of flying, I wished we _were_ on a plane. Nudge rambled until Ethan almost exploded, and we'd been hitting 10 flight hours a day. Dumpster diving repelled our new female additions, but they were grateful for the food. McDonalds saved our lives.

Funny. I always thought they'd kill us all.

That night, my handy-dandy Max Ride card bought us all some much need clothing, and backpacks for the new mutants on the block. I filled our packs with spare outfits for the rest of the Flock along with a few more food items to keep us going.

Ethan had picked a classic Fang outfit. Red T-Shirt, dark jeans, black boots, a black sweatshirt in his pack.

Isabelle wore a red tank top, jeans and white sneakers with a jean jacket and red sweatshirt in her backpack.

Cadisha grabbed simple jean capris and a blue-green T-shirt, a grey sweatshirt in her pack.

I had simple shirt, simple jeans, and amazing grey tennis shoes. Nudge went…..Nudge and grabbed a designer shirt and 'stonewashed' jeans with pink tennis shoes. Geez, I don't understand her.

Simple T-shirt and jeans were purchased for Fang, Iggy, Gasman, and Angel.

The bored clerk handed over the many clothes, jars of honey, loaf of bread, canned foods, and 3 backpacks in red, red, and blue.

That was a night of resting in a random tree.

LINE BREAK!

"Hey Max, I'm still tired. Do you think we could sleep more? How long until we get back to the Grand Canyon? I liked it there, and we didn't have to fly as much. I think Isabelle's tired too, but I don't really know, and Cadisha looks really tired, but Ethan doesn't but I'm still tired, cause we've been flying for, like, 7 hours, and we only stopped like 3 hours ago for food, and I'm hungry again, and I'm tired, so Max, I think we should stop for a while before I"

"SHUT UP!" Ethan yelled from below us.

"I second that motion," I chimed in.

"Yeah," Cadisha sighed.

"You guys are SO"

"Nudge!" I yelled, stopping her before more word spew overflowed.

Ethan looked up, an annoyed look on his face. Isabelle swooped down and smiled at him. He grinned back Isabelle tilted upwards.

I tried my own little loop, Nudge following, laughing. Cadisha smiled slightly. Her eyes did not change, just the curve of her mouth.

"C'mon guys." I chuckled. I turned vertical, the ground coming closer and closer. They followed.

Dumpster diving it was.

LINE BREAK!

"That one's the North Star, the really bright one. And that's Sirius, the Dog Star. I'm not sure I know any more," Isabelle told us, pointing at different stars in the clear night sky.

We were just outside our little cave. Cadisha smiled at the new information, her face bright for the first time I'd seen her.

I didn't see anything super special, except that it was a beautiful night, and our stars just got blocked.

3 shapes were above us, 2 of them maybe carrying things.

The next minute Gasman was grinning at me, landing softly. Fang smirked as he too gracefully banked and hit the ground. An Asian girl, maybe 14, landed. She had long black hair and slanted green eyes. Black cat ears and tail, and magnificent bat wings were suddenly hidden under her lumpy black sweatshirt.

In the Asian girl's arms, there was a child. As far as I could see, she was all human. She was fast asleep, but those facial features reminded me al too much of a certain little girl still gone. Her hair was tangled, but it still looked soft and fluffy. It was like Angel when she was 4 or 5.

I could've stared at the little blond girl all day, but movement caught my eye as Fang set down yet another new girl. 15 years old or so, she had auburn hair, long and layered, with green eyes and pale skin with just a light dusting of freckles. She too seemed human.

Nudge was up and running hugging Gasman and Fang, blabbering to the new girls.

"Well I'm Emmi." The auburn haired one said.

"Is that your real name?" Nudge said, and was about to continue when Emmi cut in.

"It's a nickname. I'm really Emerald Lavienne, I guess." Emmi said quickly.

"Emerald, Emerald, Emerald. Lavienne, Lavienne, Lavienne." Nudge kept repeating.

"Yeah." Emmi laughed.

"Neko," said the Asian girl, shifting the girl in her arms slightly to extend a hand.

I shook it firmly. She smiled, just a little.

Fang smirked at me, Gasman grinned widely. Neko's small smile stuck around and Emmi's lips quirked up. Nudge was wearing a full blown smile and I felt my face do the same.

The little blond girl began to stir, and Neko handed her to me.

Her eyelids fluttered to reveal shockingly blue eyes. In fact, it was the same shade as Gasman's and Angel's, with the same innocence. She even had Gasman's exact hair color and feel, Angel's very light freckles.

"I know you." She yawned out.

"You do?" I asked, shocked.

"Uh-huh. The doctors showed me your picture. They said that you were bad, and I shouldn't trust you for anything," She started getting less tired, more squirmy and panicked. "You're a vewy bad lady! A vewy bad lady who's gonna kill Aidan! They were gonna fix me so I could kill you and save Aidan!"

She leapt out of my grip, which had loosened with my shock. She began kicking weakly at my ankles.

"Why'd you wanna kill my Aidan? He never did nothing to you!" She sobbed through newfound tears.

"Hilary." Gasman whispered.

The little girl, Hilary, turned her head to look at him. She ran clumsily to him and hugged him with all her might. He hugged back, like little siblings.

Little siblings. That's it!

Hilary was Gasman and Angel's little sister. Hilary wanted me dead. Perfect.

Isabelle had emerged from the shadows. Her eyes were almost brimming with tears as well as she flitted over to comfort Hilary.

Cadisha walked over to Gasman, getting him away from the vice that was Hilary. Hilary's strength wore down, leaving only Isabelle cradling her, singing a lullaby I'd never heard.

"Golden slumber kiss your eyes,  
Smiles await you when you rise.  
Sleep,  
pretty baby,  
Do not cry,  
And I'll sing you a lullaby."

She sang it with such calm and soothing it hardly mattered that not every note was perfect, or that she stumbled once. Hilary even smiled a little bit.

Ethan walked slowly up to Isabelle, wrapping one arm over her shoulders as tears began running down her cheeks.

"Care you know not,  
Therefore sleep,  
While I o'er you watch do keep.  
Sleep,  
pretty darling,  
Do not cry,  
And I will sing a lullaby."

Her voice cracked on the last note, tears running down her face freely now. Yet a small smile crept onto her face.

Hilary fell asleep in Isabelle's arms. Tears tracks stained both their cheeks.

Isabelle gently deposited Hilary on her red sweatshirt, the jean jacket on her, even though it was warm outside. She turned quickly and buried her head in Ethan's shoulder, her arms wrapping around him tightly. Ethan embraced her back lightly, tenderly. It was like this scene had been played out many times before.

Isabelle pulled away slowly. "Sorry," She told us. "It's just," She took in a shuddering breath. "I remember being her age, and my mom would sing me that song to get me to calm down. She taught it to me when I was about 7. And later on, when I was in the devils playground of torture, I taught Ethan. I've been stuck in that stupid hell hole for 8 years, and it was so much worse for me. I remembered what it was like not in there, I knew. Sure, I told Ethan and he wanted out too, but I had the memories."

Tears flowed down again. So much crying was going on tonight.

Gasman looked like he was in physical pain, but not enough to worry me about it.

Emmi had out a notepad and pencil, sketching away furiously. I felt, somehow, mixed emotions bleeding from her from happiness to sadness, an even mixture.

Cadisha was showing Fang her wings and well, fangs. After all, she was part venomous snake so she'd told us. He smiled slightly and shook out his midnight black wings, showing them off. She smiled widely back.

Neko had a…book. She was reading in almost no light. It was titled 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and she seemed to be about half-way into it.

I was almost asleep. Fang walked over to me, leaving Cadisha to talk excitedly with Gasman.

"Iggy and Angel will be back soon," He promised me.

"I hope so." My little girl needed to come back to me. Hopefully allowing Hilary to like me.

A fit of laughter exploded from above me. Angel and Iggy were above us, Iggy carrying someone.

The someone dropped to the ground and landed on their feet. It was a girl. She had long red hair (grrr) and appeared to be about 11. Slightly pale, she had vibrant green eyes and smelled strongly of apples.

"This is Cailyn." Iggy introduced the girl. She waved at us, her eyes closing a little. She was tired. We all were. I would normally press for details and things, but I was way too tired right now.

In the morning. I would ask things in the morning.

**This one's really long.**

**Angel: Yeah. Aren't you gonna talk about-**

**Me: Oh yeah! Hey guys, I adopted a story called Fallen Angel, and I'd like you to read it. One thing, yes it mentions heaven and God and the Devil and all that, but I really don't mean to piss on anyone's religions. That didn't come out exactly right, but you get the point. I respect you. Heck, I'm an atheist! That's just how the story works though. Hoped you enjoyed this.**

**Angel: -Bambi eyes- Review? Please?**

**FLying out.**


	7. Together

**Hey guys! Happy very late new year! Today I found something saddening.**

**Angel: It's not very sad.**

**Me: Yes it is! **

**Angel: OK then.**

**Me: Throughout the history of MR fanfiction, there's only been 26 completed stories with over 100,000 words. That's saddening.**

**Angel: No...**

**Me: Yes it is! That's like 26 out of 11,000!**

**Angel: Yeah...can we just start the chapter?**

I couldn't get over how happy I was to see my Flock whole again.

Of course, it wasn't just my Flock. There were the mutants Isabelle, Ethan, Cailyn, Neko, and Cadisha along with the humans Emmi and Hilary.

Now our Flock stood at 9 girls and 4 boys. 13 'people' in all.

We'd all gone through our powers, and these 7 newbies added quite a bit to our little family.

Cadisha and Cailyn had grown quite the friendship. They began growing a garden in our little Arizona cave by using Cailyn slight control over plants and Cadisha's small bit of control over earth and water. The two got along very well, using their still developing powers as a common interest. Sidenote- Cailyn is actually 13, not 11. She just looks really small. Though she's super touch y on the subject, we soon learned.

Isabelle can absorb the heat from objects, mostly people,, causing them to get way considerably colder. She always wears that jean jacket because when she's not freezing something over, her body temperature is a little colder than it should be.

Ethan uses echolocation, which drives Total mad.

Emmi, you really is fully human, spreads emotion through drawings.

Neko freaked us all out when one morning a very angered black cat woke us all up. Total had startled her into turning feline and hissing very loudly. Cat-girl also has photographic memory and accelerated learning, can see in the dark and has a few advanced senses.

Hilary was powerless and all human, which we soon learned wouldn't have lasted long. She was scheduled for a total genetic makeover to kill me and 'save her brother', a story they fed her.

So this was all so much fun.

"I miss Aidan. And Hena." She told Neko one day. Hilary only liked Gasman, Angel, Neko, and Isabelle. The rest of us were mean. So Neko had to get some details out of her.

"Hena…." Neko said, no doubt scanning her long-lasting memory. "Wasn't she the one captured from her foster home just a few months ago? The 2% bird 1% tiger?"

"I don't know. She had pretty wings and she was really nice, and she missed her family."

"What did she look like?" Neko said, her patience straining.

"Her hair was a little brown, and her hair was more brown, her wings were brown and black and pretty and her eyes were brown and pretty, and she liked to tell me about something called skate-boarding and something called boxin. What're those?"

Neko's eyes lit up and she told Hilary and brief description of each before coming over to see me and Fang, 2 people she seemed to respect and have patience with.

"Are we going to be traveling to nay more schools anytime soon?" She asked, almost sounding excited.

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"Because we could spring Hena and Aidan." She answered simply.

"Max!" Nudge ran up to me yelling. "Can we go to New York! I really wanna go there again! I mean, last time it was fun until the Erasers showed up, but we found the Institute place and we got people out, but I don't really wanna go there again, just New York New York because it's fun there and the stores are cool and Central Park was cool, and all of it was cool, and I really think it would be cool if we went there again, you know? Cause then"

"SHUT UP!" Ethan yelled from further in the cave. He didn't really like Nudge much.

Nudge stuck her tongue out in his direction, even though we couldn't see him.

"Maybe Nudge." I responded, just as Angel skipped up, Hilary following her.

Hilary glared at me intensely. It was almost adorable, except that she meant it with every fiber of her being.

"I think something important is in New York, but I'm not sure what." Angel said, a little dreamily.

Hilary walked pats her sister, a look of defiance on her face, and swiftly kicked me in the leg. It didn't hurt much, at least physically.

Cailyn and Cadisha were behind me, Cadisha pulling very small droplets of water from the air, Cailyn whispering to the small flower they had grown from the cave floor. They were quite proud of themselves.

"Isabelle!" Cadisha yelled. "Come see!"

Isabelle came forward, away from Ethan into where we could see her delicate features. "What is it?"

"It grew an inch!" Cailyn squealed.

"It did!" Isabelle praised. The younger girls giggled and walked off to go talk to Nudge and Gasman.

Cadisha launched into whatever Gazzy and Iggy were building, and I really didn't wanna know exactly what.

I thought for a moment about how amazing it all was. These kids, Cadisha, Emmi, Cailyn, would never really have gotten a chance to live protected. And the almost adults, Neko, Ethan and Isabelle, might have been trapped until they were expired, which they might be soon.

Ethan would expire in a few years on Valentines Day, and Isabelle a month before. They knew the dates they would drop dead.

Ethan would be almost 20, Isabelle already there. That means the rest of us were probably scheduled for around that age.

But the kids didn't have to worry. If Cadisha's expiration date existed, she still had about 10 more years, Angel and Gasman the same.

Cadisha smiled at me, more like beamed, as she paused in her work. The little black scales around her beautiful green eyes did not take away from her face. They added to it. I couldn't imagine her face without these snake traits.

I guess what was wrong with us made us who we are. And so many people would never understand.

If I could change the world, I would. And I would try. At the same time I would save my friends and family from death, and my acquaintances from ignorance.

And it would start with me doing something.

"Come on guys." I announced, standing. "We're going to New York."

**Still sad.**

**Angel: *pats flying's shouder* Here. Cookie?**

**Me: Where'd you...is that my sisters?**

**Angel: Um...yes?**

**Me: Get it out of my sight!**

**Angel: Why?**

**Me: Her cookie's are horrible. The bake sale girls at her school need to learn to cook.**

**Angel: *shrugs* I like em.**

**Me: Angel, remember why you're here?**

**Angel: Oh yeah! *says all cutely* Flying doe not own Me or other maximum ride characters. Please review now? Pwease!**

**Flying out.**


	8. The Animals

Going to New York with new flock: not as fun as one would think.

Amount of flying kids-10, along with Total.

Amount of kids that can't fly- 3.

I had to hold Cailyn, the 13 year old that looked 11 and hated being carried through the air, which was _so_ much fun. That left Emmi being carried by Fang, whom she looked very uncomfortable around, and Hilary asleep in Neko's arms.

After a few flight hours, Cadisha almost fell out of the sky with exhaustion, leaving Nudge to carry her.

Isabelle stuck with her swirl and twirl flight pattern, Angel following her like they were playing Follow the Leader.

I smiled after them, even with a pouty teenager ruining my mood.

"Lighten up Cali." I chirped, using her annoying nickname.

"No." She responded, obviously annoyed at something.

"Look!" Nudge shouted. Ethan covered his ears from below. "It's Central Park! And it has trees, and benches and people, and it's so amazing! And there's the lake, and"

"Lake?" Emmi squeaked

"Yeah, why?" Iggy asked.

"I don't really like my water to be too big to fit in a drinking glass."

A few chuckled as we landed at Emmi's lake reaction. Can't imagine how she'd act to an ocean.

"So, what now?" Neko asked. I saw something in her eyes.

"You have something you want to do, don't you?" I asked, very suspicious of her.

"Well….I can play a pretty mean game of poker….."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I could play too!" Angel piped up.

Neko brightened. "We would win _so_ much!"

"I said no!" I shouted.

"Max, please?" Angel whimpered. I very quickly turned my head away.

"Fa-ang?" I heard behind me as Fang landed, dropping Emmi the last few feet.

He made a mistake. He asked "What?" and turned to look.

"Can me and Neko please go play poker and get money?" Angel pleaded.

"Angel…."He struggled. "Yes."

"Don't you need money to play poker?" Iggy pondered.

"Yeah….." Neko trailed off.

"Max's unlimited card?" Gasman asked. Oh yeah…the Max Ride card.

"I don't know…"

"C'mon Max!" Angel pressed.

"Fine. But only 50 bucks. I'll take out another…." I counted in my head. "110. 10 dollars apiece for Me, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, Cailyn, Emmi, Cadisha, Hilary, Ethan, and Isabelle."

The group cheered-or at least most of it, Fang and Ethan do not cheer-and went off to find an ATM.

Very soon we had $160 in 10's. The money was divided, and we all set off on a little journey.

I went back to Central Park after the groups were decided. Gasman, Iggy, Cadisha, and Hilary would go to the big toy store. Emmi, Cailyn, and Nudge were going to wander through a few different stores, and Me, Fang, Ethan and Isabelle would stay in the Park.

I still felt uneasy.

The park was nice though. I hung out with Fang by the lake, seeing him almost smile when he didn't know I was looking. Ethan and Isabelle were on the other side, but we couldn't see them, and weren't looking. Which was probably why.

I was worried. Funny. I'd known the 2 maybe a week, Isabelle was my age, Ethan just a year younger, yet I was worried. I laughed. Fang looked at me like I was insane, the returned to his exciting sport of cloud-watching.

"Hey Max," Isabelle said as she walked up, looking rather shifty. Her hands were behind her back, and Ethan looked like he was trying not to laugh.

"Yes?" I wanted to know what was up.

"So…I found something I'm sorta set on keeping." Oh no.

"Which is?" Fang asked, his attention full on her now, clouds forgotten.

Isabelle looked nervous as she brought her hands in front of her. A small animal sat on them. It was like a duckling, but instead of yellow fuzz, was covered in white-gray down. It looked positively cute and helpless.

"Swan." Fang stated, and returned to watching the sky.

"You should bring that back to it's mother," I told her, knowing that a mother swan would not appreciate her chick gone.

"His mom's dead. I found her and her other chicks dead, I don't know how. But this one was still waddling around, trying to teach itself to swim. Oh please Max!" She ended her sad story with a cry for help, causing the little swan to cheep.

"It's okay Earl." She cooed.

"Earl?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes. It's a name that means prince, or warrior. I studied name a lot when I was 7. It paid off, I guess." Isabelle said nonchalantly.

"So why don't you two go find some things for…Earl." I suggested.

"And leave him alone?" Isabelle looked aghast.

"No….why don't you stay here and tell Ethan what you need."

She began listing some things to Ethan, handing over her 10 dollars to add to his.

"And then can I pretty please have some twizlers?"

Ethan rolled his eyes, nodded, gave her a one-armed hug, and walked off.

Isabelle set little Earl in her lap as she plopped into a sitting position.

"Baby swans are called signets." She informed me as Earl got his head fuzz rubbed.

"How much did you study as a kid?" I asked, shocked at her knowledge.

"I read a lot. At least, you know, for a forth grader." She smiled at me, and then sighed. Quickly going back to playing with Earl, the grin lit her face again.

A group of teenage boys walked past. "Lookin fine!" One called to Isabelle. She giggled and waved at the boy. He blew her a kiss and she turned away.

"You need a haircut." I told her out of the blue, but it was true. Her hair fell to her waist, making it very high maintenance, maintenance we didn't have.

"Yeah, but I like it long." She mumbled, fingering Earl's tiny wings, earning herself a nip.

"I've got a pair of scissors in my pack," I offered. "Come on, you need it."

"Um…okay." She sounded uncertain, and looked extremely nervous as I brought out the scissors.

"How short am I allowed to cut it?" I asked, knowing I would probably go just under where she said.

"Allowed? My shoulders. What I prefer? My elbows." She responded, shaking slightly.

"It won't be perfect, but it'll do." I began cutting.

The snip, snip of the scissors was almost soothing, but Isabelle did not relax. I cut her hair to about her biceps, curving it a little so the strands in the back were longer than those in the front. So it wasn't a boutique hair salon style, but it worked.

"I'm done." I announced after a few minutes.

She reached back and felt her hair, breathing out heavily.

"It's not all gone." Isabelle stated happily. Earl cheeped at her and her smile widened.

"They're coming back." Fang whispered.

Looking into the sky, I saw a winged figure going down into an alley, seemingly to meet up with a few others.

The girls.

Nudge, Emmi, and Cailyn met up with me and Fang in just a few minutes, Emmi first, almost falling into the lake until she stopped and realized where she was.

Emmi shrieked and back up several paces, running into Nudge, making Emmi panic, run forward, and fall into the lake.

Emmi panicked further and grabbed her backpack, sprinting quickly out of the offending water.

"It's okay," She whispered to her backpack. I raised an eyebrow. Was she talking to her sketchbook?

No. No she wasn't. An animal crawled out of her bag. It was long with short little legs, brown fur. All in all, a cute elongated rat.

"Ah!" Isabelle shrieked, causing an alarmed peep from Earl.

"AW!" Nudge squealed, dropping her bag to rush over to Isabelle and more importantly, Earl.

"Um, Nudge?" Cailyn asked.

"Oh my god!" Nudge yelled, going back to her bag. She gently pulled out another long rat thing and cradled it. This one was more gray than Emmi's.

"We're not keeping them." I stated expressionlessly.

"But Max!" Nudge whined. "They are the cutest little things ever! They were selling these poor guys for just 4 dollars each, Cailyn didn't want one, then we even got stuff for them because the person that had them told us what to do so we can take care of our minks! They're minks, by the way, but we haven't named them. Isabelle I love your little white duck! Could you help us name these guys, cause mines a girl and Emmi's is a boy, and their twins! I guess brother and sister, but they were born in the same litter, so doesn't that make them twins?"

"Okay," Isabelle laughed. "What kind of name?"

"I don't know," Nudge responded. "Something pretty."

A fragile orange butterfly flew passed, making Nudge's 'mink' chase after it like a dog.

Isabelle began to laugh. "Nova." She chuckled as she returned to patting Earl.

"What does that mean?"

"Chases butterflies."

We laughed, all except for manly-man Fangy.

"What about mine?" Emmi said. "I want something meaningful."

Emmi draped her mink over Isabelle's shoulders, the boy almost sighing with content.

"Anhur." 

"Which means?"

"Brings back the distant one."

Emmi looked as confused as I felt. "Why?"

"I'm not sure." Isabelle seemed faraway.

"I'm back!" Ethan shouted seemingly unfazed by the minks.

"Nice rats."

"Minks." Isabelle corrected.

"Oh my!" Angel yelled, suddenly running to the new animals, Total in her arms.

"Can we keep 'em?" Cadisha turned to me.

I thought. If I said no, Earl, Anhur and Nova would die out here.

"Fine. But we need stuff for the rat-things."

"Minks!" Emmi protested.

Fang slipped Nudge his 10 dollar bill, whispering, "For Nova and Anhur."

Nudge smiled and ran off, Emmi close behind.

"Happy reunion." Neko smirked from off to the side. "The others are coming; we picked this one up on the way."

Sure enough, 5 minutes later, Iggy, Gasman and Hilary walked up to see a rather off scene.

Isabelle was feeding a 'signet' from a medicine dropper, Cadisha had a mink around her neck while another mink chased butterflies while Total napped.

Hilary went straight for Nova, cuddling her and petting her. Gasman explained it to Iggy who just shook his head and sat down.

I was going to lose track of everyone and their pets very soon.

But as soon as I closed my eyes, there was a crack, and a woman stood before us.


	9. Watching and Changing

**This story has a new plotline starting here. I deleted the chapters that came after this, it got too confusing even for myself. So here you are, brand new and utterly awesome, Combined Efforts, chapter 8 or 9, I'm too lazy to check, with a note from Rhaksha Ora, my beta, at the end.**

**BTW: It's my birthday!**

_Last chapter- There was a crack and a woman stood before us._

Really, who randomly breaks something in half and storms around Central Park? Maybe she got dumped.

The angry woman snapping piles of sticks in two made all of us jump, but she didn't bother to pause and glance at our odd procession of animals and people alike.

Indeed, Nova had not gotten sick of butterflies yet, or Total of napping in the soft grass. Anhur seemed overall indifferent, reminding me of Fang or Ethan.

Isabelle gently patted Earl, making me wonder yet again even with the meaning of Earl, why she would pick that name. I mean come on….Earl.

We decided to make it looked like we were camping for the night. As far as we knew, that wasn't near as unlawful as climbing trees and sleeping there.

After about an hour of being gone, Emmi and Nudge ran back excitedly. Nudge scooped up Nova, cradling the elongated rat. Emmi was content in sitting beside her mink, smiling at it with satisfaction.

Something that really made me laugh was who was bonding with whom.

Cailyn and Cadisha adored each other; it was a sort of sisterly bond between the two. Hilary and her siblings were all really close, even if the little girl still couldn't stand me. Fang and Neko seemed a bit more connected, as well as Neko and Angel. Nudge got along with everyone but Ethan, who wouldn't even look at her. Ethan and Isabelle were even closer, and Isabelle got along with absolutely everyone, though least of all Neko. Iggy was talking with Emmi a lot, and so was Gasman.

Gasman had recently told us about his emotion power. It drew him to Emmi, made him want to be near her, especially when she was sketching, which was often. Right then, she was doodling a detailed picture of Anhur, and Gazzy was no less than 3 feet away from her.

Right then, the day was winding down. Nudge and Emmi decided to feed the minks, and convinced Isabelle to do the same with her baby swan.

Cadisha and Cailyn stopped playing around with the grass and the lake (the lake that still terrified Emmi) long enough to help set up a tent that Angel had pressured (she promised there had been no mind controlling) Neko to buy us with some of their earnings. They'd made a lot.

Fang and Ethan were running the set-up project, Gasman in a close second. Iggy was already asleep, snoring softly. I walked, observing the activities, not seeing any way to help.

Isabelle spread on of her wings slightly, shivering without her denim jacket on, and plucked some of the non-essential, but still nice to have, down from her wings. She winced with every bit of fluff, and I watched her in horror.

"Isabelle, what are you-?" I started, and then watched in shock as she began forming a small bed with her own down. She set the sleeping signet on it, and slipped her denim jacket back on. Isabelle smiled with content at the warmer feeling more coverage gave her.

Earl was now curled into the down; probably thinking it was his sibling or mother. Poor thing would be devastated when it woke up.

Everyone began to move into the large tent, all except for Hilary and her brother.

"What's wrong?" I asked frantically as I got closer to them.

Hilary glared at me with hatred so out of place on her little face. Gasman's held an apologetic expression. "She doesn't want to sleep in the same tent as you." He explained.

"For crying out loud," I started, and then stopped myself. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to make the child mad.

"I'll take first watch, maybe then I'll sleep in a tree, or something. I don't know. Just get into the tent and tell Fang what I said." Gasman once again looked at me apologetically, and Hilary raced into the tent.

"C'mon, Ig," I whispered, nudging him as he slept on the hard ground. "Get into the tent." He sleepily grumbled and walked slowly into the large temporary living quarters.

Nudge walked out of the tent just as Iggy had entered. She looked rather sheepish. "Max, we've decided on the watches tonight, and I'm supposed to tell you." I didn't respond, so she continued. "It'll be you and Cadisha, then Fang and Cailyn, then Iggy and Emmi."

"Why are we doubling?"

"Fang thought maybe we should teach the others, so later on you guys can get more sleep and have your watches scattered. It's a good idea. You've been looking sort of tired." She shut up quickly.

"Alright, bring Cadisha out, then." I sighed. It was a good idea. Nudge cheered softly and skipped into the tent. Only then did I realize a brown mink was wrapped around her shoulders, or as much as it could be. Nova looked at me quizzically before I could see her no more.

Central Park was still alive with activity. There were many rollerbladers, walkers, and joggers. Quite a few were in pairs.

"I'm here, Max." A soft voice said from behind me. I couldn't see her face. But from the insanely long black hair and rather small stature, I knew Nudge had sent out Cadisha.

She sat own beside me, brushing the hair out of her face. Now her green eyes reflected the stray bits of light, but the black scales around them were thrown into shadow. Her wings were tucked in as well, like mine. She looked normal.

Cadisha absentmindedly fiddled with the grass and her hair. Suddenly she looked up, determined. "Max, can I ask you something?"

"You just did," I chuckled. "But sure." She sighed sadly.

"You know how when you busted me out of that place, they shot Trek?" Her voice wobbled. I nodded and put on hand on her shoulder. "I think he named me Cadisha. I don't really remember. But he always called me Cadisha. And I think I loved Trek."

I could feel the shock on my face. Then it occurred to me. Cadisha was 10. Trek couldn't have been older than 6 or 7. It made sense, in a weird way.

"I don't want to be Cadisha anymore. I want to be someone new. I-I want to be… someone free." Tears ran down her face now. The extra reflective material threw the scales out of the shadows, and there was Cadisha.

"Who do you want to be, then?" I asked softly.

"On the way back from the toy store, I saw a pet shop, and I went in. There was this parrot named Ahskahr. It was a weird name, but I like it. But the parrot was so miserable, living in a cage. So I reversed the name. Rhaksha. I would like it very much if that was my new name." Cadisha looked so sincere, heartbroken, and sad, that I had no choice but to nod.

"Of course; Rhaksha it is." I had never seen the parrot girl look so happy.

We sat for another minute, not talking, just watching the people.

"So, Max..?"

"Yeah, Rhaksha?"

"Can you teach me what you do on these watches?"

I laughed. "Yeah, of course I can. So the first thing you do is stay alert and focused."

"I think I can do that."

"The next step is…"

**Rhaksha Ora here. **

**I'd just like to say… to me, FlyingBoppers is an amazing writer. My character is exactly as I wanted her to be. It's depicted so well… it almost seems as if my character were a real person. Enjoy this chapter written by my incredibly talented… master. **

**So that was my beta...her character is Cadisha, now Rhaksha, if you hadn't guessed. Now seems like a good time to tell you who owns who.**

**ravenatmidnight-Ethan and Isabelle**

**teardropsfade_x-Emmi. **

**Beth- Cailyn**

**Again , I'm too lazy. I'll tell you who owns Neko next time. **

**See you next update!**

**Flying out.**


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